WHO ARE YOU?

My name is Brayan Ramales. I am from Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in Kensington, lived there pretty much my whole life. I’m a painter, I tattoo, and… I do jewelry work. Oh and I also DJ sometimes, I wanna get better at it because it’s the most fun thing I am currently doing.


WHICH MEDIUM GOT YOU INTO ART?

Definitely painting. I started painting in high school because of my friend Bryan, his name is Bryan Delvalle. He was my favorite artist in highschool—and still my favorite artist now. He kind of mentored me even though we’re the same age. The first time I watched him paint, I was at his house and I was just entranced. He was always so meticulous about how he worked. He mixed his own paints, sourced his own paints. Really talented painter. Seeing him nurtured my skills. He’s the best. That’s where it all started. I never really took art too seriously before that, I would just doodle. If you were to see my old work from before, you would see it wasn’t that good.



HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR PRESENT WORK?

Even with my present work now, it’s not good yet. Not in a self-deprecating way at all, I just don’t think it’s that great. But I am always excited to get better. I look at painters who paint their whole lives, and nobody really gets good until they are around 30. Or even as old as 60. One of my favorite painters, Philip Guston, wasn't celebrated until his later work. I’m not a huge Picasso fan, but even him, his cubism work, which is what he’s popular for, didn’t come until the later part of his life. I look at art as a journey, and I’m only 26. I hope to be a career artist. This is just the beginning.


DO YOU THINK YOUR ART HAS TO BE CELEBRATED BY OTHER PEOPLE FOR IT TO BE GOOD?

That’s complicated. I have been thinking a lot about that recently. Sometimes I’ll get into a rhythm of sharing my work a lot, which is something I need to do less. To me, the idea feels done once it’s celebrated. Let’s say I post something I do on my iPad, which are the faster pieces, the digital stuff. Celebrated or not celebrated, I choose not to expand on that idea further. I have millions of ideas but I share them at the 5% mark. I share a million different sketches, and I think if we look at how art was made before, for example 20 years ago, painters would have to work on a show for four years. During the creation, they wouldn’t hear any feedback besides peer critique. The feedback would come from other artists, not the audience. Something I want to explore now is to not let the audience dictate whether I explore an idea, which is what I have done for maybe the past three years. I explore things that I post and are celebrated, or things I can make money off of. But I don’t explore the things I might enjoy more because I can’t gain money or social currency from it.



For example with the tattoo stuff, I know what people like. Funny enough, I’m a Mexican person, and I know what Mexican people like. I go to LA and I create literally a “Mexican Flash,” and I don’t mean that in a deprecating way. I know what will get me booked; You know, you throw in a couple devils, a couple of angels. And it feels kind of condescending, I guess the thing with art consumption. I don’t want to know what people will like, then prove it right. I almost feel as though art is at a standstill because things can be celebrated so quickly, and we consume so much art on a daily basis. I can open my phone right now and see maybe three new art pieces. And I don’t necessarily think an artist's creative process should be so connected to the audience. Wait- can you remind me of the question again?

E: Do you think your art has to be celebrated for you to think it needs to be good?

Oh yea, so as an artist we do not need feedback that quickly. There are certain things you need to work through and really flesh to really find what is good in it. You have to consider that someone is looking at your art on the way to work, on break, while they're taking a shit. I mean everyone is addicted to their phones.



You have to consider all these things. But it’s not a critique. It’s not an intentional critique. I don’t want to project my beliefs onto other artists, like “nobody posts, and we all have to work for a minimum of four years.” But, you almost have to trust things that aren’t celebrated and not rely on the audience. There was this drawing I did, it’s one of my favorite drawings I have ever done. So I painted it, and I posted it and it got no likes. Lower than I expected for something I considered a banger, and I’m just over it. I’m over the idea, this new technique, this new style that I think can really entertain me. I want to develop it more as I feel like it aligns visual qualities with emotional ones, which makes good art. It’s hard though because I need to set aside time to work on this idea, but it would take a few months.

C:  Learning everything to properly execute an idea must take a long time.

Honestly, I think good art takes months, and I don't really want to because I think a part of me is used to that monetary gain, that celebration, that feeling that you get from being celebrated, that I'm like, oh, if I really commit to fleshing out this thing that I think pushes my art in a positive direction, I have to also be conscious to sacrifice people celebration and money celebration, which is, like not to be one of those people, but under capitalism, you have to perform and you have to. Your skill has to bring you back money, or if not, where's the value in it?

E: You gotta pay the bills!



You know, we're always thinking about our value, and I think that, I think as artists, it's probably really hard to not care about celebration because you also have to prove…

C: You have to prove what you're doing is worth it.

And that's why I think about like, not even to take privileged people or white people and demonize them or something, but it's like it takes immense privilege to explore things that are not celebrated. I think that people with the most privilege have the most time and the most resources to really flesh out things and invest in that. Me right now, I'm working a full-time job and making X amount. I'm not making enough to live alone and have all the things that people want to have, like a home, a car. I think more people want to have the American dream. It's like, if I have a job that gives me a home, gives me a car, vacation time, and hobby time then that's what it is. I feel like I put so much pressure on my art to make me money because I'm just like, it needs to take me out of this circumstance that I'm in. I have to prove people right. I have to prove my mom right. I have to have faith in myself, faith in my work, but the only way under capitalism to show people that it's worth exploring is if it makes money rather than it being really really good.

E: It’s less about the art, and more about the money that comes from it.



Exactly, I think I'm really really good. Not in an egotistical way, I just think I'm great at what I do, and I want the world to think that too—but not necessarily because I care what people think. It’s because I don't want to work. I just want to explore my thoughts deeper. And that's where that relationship with, to come back to your question: does work need to be celebrated, or do I feel like I need celebration? Yeah because I need to eat, you know.

If I was born in privilege, and I'm not not saying that in a global setting like living in the Global North versus like the Global South, like I'm born in immense privilege, but if I was born and that's saying like “oh what if this, what if that” but I wish we all had the privilege to explore our ideas more without it being celebrated. I feel like that relationship is really only had and exacerbated under capitalism.

E: Your own personal work though, you do not need the celebration to be like “this is something good that I made?”

Yeah, I do. I do want to say no, like I could say all of that with everything I just said. But I do need celebration, it’s that relationship with money. It is that relationship that comes back with all these different things.

A while back, I used to just post photography for fun. I would never post my paintings. If you went to the bottom of my page, I would have these photos with like eight likes. I had more confidence in myself and in my work before money was involved.

So do I need celebration? Yes.
Do I want to need celebration? No.



I'm trying to work against that because I want to explore these four-month ideas, year-long ideas, and even ambitious four-year-long ideas that really need to be fleshed out at a pace. For example, artists like David Hammons, Noah Davis, Michael Majers, all these guys talk about time in relation to art for so long. They're like “Yo I was thinking about this for two years” or “I thought about this for a year and it was trash.” And like I'm like, how are you gonna throw away a year of bag-chasing away? You know what I'm saying? Like I can't afford to do that. I can't afford to do that because I need money to believe in myself. So right now, what I'm working on is having this job or even pursuing another job where I don't need to post my work. Like, I don't need to talk to anybody. Like I don't need to work with anybody.

C: But art is so collaborative…

But I only want to work with my peers and artists that I respect and have critiques. My friends right now are talking about getting a studio and offered to rent me a little bit of space in it. I really want to use that space to start hosting group critiques with painters I like, photographers I like, and people to bring in their work and we could really cultivate a community so that we could have faith in slowing down. So we don't have to… keep making almost like front art and back art—like front house, back house.



Like tattoos and stuff, I'm a little more shameless. Lowkey, at the beginning, I only did my own designs and I was just like, "Yo, fuck everyone else. Like I'm not doing nothing." And shit was lit. I was getting a lot of bread. And I was like booking OD. But once I started, I wasn't posting like revolutionary shit. But once I started posting work that felt like I wanted a tattoo more, the bookings went down. I was just like fuck as far as a tattoo artist goes. I mean, now I'm extremely insecure. Like now, I'm not gonna lie, I'm like I should just give up. It's funny because as a painter I'll never give up painting. I'll always make it happen. But even if I don't, I've never been in a show, and it does hurt my feelings.

But I have faith in myself as a painter where I'm alright. I know that I'm gonna be, whether it's celebrated to the world or like on some Van Gogh shit, I die like not a painter. I know I'm gonna be great, but with tattoos is like, “Nah, I don't know if I'm gonna be great and if I'm not gonna be great, should I give up?” And I've been slowing down a lot. So I feel with tattoos, it varies. But with tattoos, I need to be celebrated, and now since I'm way less celebrated, like it's silly to say, but like, yo, I'm thinking about giving up. Just “alright, I'm not good at it. People don't like it.” And well, I've been getting booked more recently. I have like three things coming up, so I'm excited. I gotta go super hard type shit.


CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH CREATIVE PEOPLE? DOES IT DRIVE YOU TO BETTER YOURSELF?

Yeah, it definitely does. I am friends with people that really inspire me and push me. A lot of times, I wish we had more time and like a place to sit and dedicate this space to pushing each other. Like, and you grow a lot, I even enjoy doing creative direction. I have a friend, his name is MIKE. He's a musician, and during 2020-2021, I was helping out with creative direction work. Like we were working with each other and, you know, inspiring one another and pushing each other in our work.

And I feel like because he's so talented, and it's funny to say, but because I'm so talented, we pushed each other a lot and found visual things that really pushed each other and grew our strength in, I would say, more of like visual work. I'm not a musician. He's a musician so I don't think I could push him as a musician,

but I think it's important to surround yourself with artists, like talented people and also good people and people that are smart in the way that you make you want to get smarter to really go deeper within yourself. I saw this post, there's a slide and a dump but it was like, and you know that type of art nowadays, is like two rabbits and it's like grainy, and it's kind of like bubble letters and it's like, “To get deeper within yourself, we only could get deeper in ourselves through one another.” And I was like, “Oh that's hard, but, I mean, I don't know if that's 2022 art or whatever, I don't know. We just go through so many posts and arrows so fast. I'm like, damn. Rabbits were ruling the stick-and-poke community for like three months.



I learned in the Noah Davis book, he died at a really young age, but he was saying that he and his painter and sculptor friends, who are all talented artists, and they're all rich. Which is, I guess, the goal, or that's proof that they were doing something right. He said that they were critiquing one another and one of his sculptor friends, I don't know his name but, he was saying this entire series was because Noah told me like, “Yo, this is what you're trying to say with your art, and I know you think it's here, but it's actually over here.” And I I think that is like a true testament to being around good artists, good friends, and people who are sensitive to listening to your goals.

For example, Anais and William, who are artists that really pushed me and I'm extremely close to, and we push each other. More Anais. Like I push her a lot, she pushes me a lot. And we really, like I said, dig into it—like dig into what you want to say, and you have to find your voice visually, you have to find your voice emotionally—and only someone from, I think, a third-person perspective can really guide you. It's like mining. It's like, “Yo, I know you think the diamonds are over here but like it's really over here.” And it takes a friend or a talented person to really see that. I don't really feel like I've had that in a while, not because my friends aren't good enough to tell me where to go. I just think I'm very, like I said, the audience really affects me. So right now, this is like the first big painting I've worked on in a long time where I'm like, you know, I struggle a lot with. It's like a buzzword, but I struggle a lot with intrusive thoughts. I struggle a lot with getting into depressive moods. I don't really know how to express that without it being vain, or without it being too obvious. This thing that I'm doing now, I think, encapsulates what I'm trying to say in a fun way. But art also has to be beautiful, which is kind of funny in a way. You know it has to be smart and has to be beautiful.



Kind of like in the movies where you're like, “Oh, that's like a perfect character.” They're charming. They're beautiful. They're smart. They got a car. You know, like, it's kind of crazy what you expect from art. What's that funny thing, like funny-sexy-cool? Like that's where you kind of want your art to be. So not, I don't know about everyone else, but not sexy. I'm just saying that. That's what they say, but it has to be good and all those things for people to remember it. And for people, I guess that's what I want to see in art. I like the books I was showing you guys. Like Noah Davis, he talks a lot about family. He incorporates fantasy. Like there's guys with heads on fire, and there's a Cartier bracelet. Which I'm like, “Okay is he talking about vanity, is he talking about wealth?” You know, there's like home scenes. There's a scene of someone getting spanked, like a kid getting spanked, and I'm like, “Okay, that's relatable in a way.” And he's painting it in a nostalgic way. And I hope that I understand the gist of it.

But all these things and all these components, I think, are what makes him an amazing artist. And that's what I'm trying to do, at least now, with my art. And that's why I wanna do the critiques, 'cause I do wanna show people this work. And if people are like, "I think this is too silly, there's a toy in it.” And I don't know, or, “I think this is too depressing. There's a guy jumping out of a window. Like, do you wanna kill yourself? I don't think you should put that in a painting."

I think all these things have merit, and that's what I want—a group critique. But I also wanna have faith in myself. I don't think anyone could be a great artist alone. But you also have to have the faith to be like, “All right, people don't get it.” And I have to almost be on some exploration. I literally got a self-fund and believe and nourish myself and survive through these woods.


WHO ARE YOUR MAIN INSPIRATIONS?

For Lucy’s sake, Lucy is my main inspiration. Nah, but my main inspiration is the human experience. I want people to see themselves in the work, and I want to be honest about what I'm going through. Like for me, art is therapeutic. I view it as both my happiness and my suffering, but also what I hope for, it's all like what's on my mind, you know? My main inspiration is to explain, even understand myself better through my work. If I tell you guys about every painting, this painting, it's like two stars, and they're entangled from each other's forehead.



But there's these rings, and there's these clouds, and they're flying over these trees that maybe could also look like mountains. And to me, what inspired that painting is difficult relationships, like difficult love. They're entangled, and they look happy, but there's clouds above them, and there's rings above them, and they're bound to each other for better or for worse. And it's like, sometimes, I think that's not what love is—but I think that's when it's fun. That's what it feels like love is.

And then, like this painting, which if I had like $100,000 in years to explore, I would do a series. This is a Mexican family. I was obsessed with depicting Mexican people as cacti. Because I feel like… it could be anyone's immigrant, parent, struggle, whatever. But I feel like because a lot of people's parents are never home, and I'm not like, “oh, sorry me,” or whatever, or even trying to put my mom on blast, but like, a lot of people's parents are always working.



And like, they didn't really have nurturing parents—like emotionally nurturing parents. So, you kind of have to, in a way, be low-maintenance—like a cactus you water. You could forget to water a cactus. So I think that's over-metaphorizing a cactus, but they're rough, and they're pointy. You can't get too close, and I feel like that's how I felt about growing up a only child who spent a lot of time alone. I felt like I had to be low-maintenance, and I had to like figure out life for myself. And I had to also struggle a lot in ways that I feel like people who had the resources to be nurtured in a way [did not have to]. I didn't have no one to help me with homework or something, and I struggled a lot in school, like middle school and high school. And I think like a lot of people's parents or immigrants didn't go to middle school and high school, so how are they gonna help you figure out how to write an essay, you know? I want to make art like where smarty-pants people and also regular people could be like, “Yo, like he's the cactus.” And what do you think about a cactus? You don’t need to water it a lot. They're pointy and there's a million meanings in those things.


C: Do you have any specific artists you would like to name as your inspirations?

Yeah, I have a bunch of people I can name. Noah Davis, Philip Guston, David Hammons. Um, Dr. Seuss, um, Brian Delvalle, who's my friend. Um, Lucy Gonzalez. Lucy Gonzalez.

E: Shoutout to your mom? 

My mom? Yeah, she does inspire a lot of the words. She's a poet. My mom writes poetry. And I think, yeah, it's really good. And she helps me write the titles sometimes.

So like Francisca Ramales, I'm trying to think of more artists.

Michael Mujeres.

The guy, Toriyama, the guy who did Dragon Ball Z and Dr. Slump. And video games. I love video games.



WHAT IS THE REASONING BEHIND YOUR ART STYLE?

I like pretty things. I like cute things. I like cartoon things. I love video games. I play Fortnite, like that shit is the silliest game. Like you could be, you could be a Marvel character and do like, like, what's that dance that Blockboy JB did?

C: Gritty?

L: Shoot?

You could do a shoot with Goku and have a backpack. Freaking Bruno Mars is in a game. I have the Bruno Mars character.

I think I make it cute because I like cute things, but I also make it cute to make it light. I think at its core, it's about even my sense of humor, or even the sense of humor I grew up on. Like, I don't know, I mean, this could be any people, I don't like to generalize, but as far as I know, Mexican people love to joke about terrible things. Like my nickname at home or in Mexico is “gordito,” which translates to fatty. And then my dad and my cousin used to call me a “nano,” which I don't know if it's problematic, but it's like a little person. Because it's like, these things, maybe it’s redacted or whatever, but you know, even things like life-or-death situations. I don't want to put any family members on blast, but I have heard stories of people, scary stories of people crossing the border, and they're like, “Yeah that was crazy though.” And then they're like, “Yeah people were dying,” and really with that tone of silliness.

Not even to get personal, like I had cancer a couple years back and the way I remember it is funny, you know what I'm saying? Like I remember a conversation I had with my dad. He called me. He's a crazy person but he just said “You're gonna die,” and I'm like, “I'm straight.” I was riding a bike. I had just had surgery, and I was like “Bro, life is good. Let's not talk about it.” Let's just be alive, you know? So I think that kind of whimsy that comes from suffering and making fun of suffering is what keeps me going. And maybe it's not necessarily healthy because doing that, you bottle a lot of things in. But I don't want to depress or paint people at the border getting beat up or being poor. What, am I gonna draw like an empty wallet open? I don't want to paint literal things. I don’t look down on artists who choose to paint these things or real life terrors that occur in the world. For me, presenting suffering to an audience at a gallery which many are owned and visited by mostly white people, I don’t want to display suffering to be consumed.

Not saying that I make art and all of it is jokes, but it's part of how I process things. It's really a window to how I deal with things, you know?



IS CREATING AN OUTLET FOR YOUR FEELINGS?

Yeah, definitely. Creating is the ultimate outlet for everything that I want to say or everything that I think. It's as close to me as you can get, or even understanding yourself. Yeah, because I think you look at work, and you try to see yourself in it, too.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE MEDIUM OUT OF ALL THE ONES YOU DO?

Funwise, DJing. Like, I'm not even a good DJ. But it is so fun; seeing people dance is so fun. Just watching people, it's almost like being, what's that guys? That’s like?

♪ Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun ♪

ALL: Conductor?

It's like I’m the conductor, and people are like the instruments. You're like, “Whoa, wait till I hit him with this one.” You're kind of like-, like yearning,

At least that’s how it is for me. I don't know if that's every DJ. I know there's really good DJs out there. But I'm so excited to see how people will receive the next song, to see if I could make them remember something 'cause I like playing older things, and I'll also make them dance.

And I love when people look at each other, they're like, “Whoa, he played this?!” It's way better than… that's like the ultimate feedback. Because people are going out to have fun, and you know, we're living under capitalism, not everything is good. But people are out here to have a good time, so I'm gonna give them a good time. That’s why DJing is the one I have the most fun with. I want to be a great DJ, and it’s definitely one of my favorite things to do.

But as far as art goes, like painting, I think I'm gonna paint for the rest of my life. I'm in this pursuit like, “oh I'm gonna paint till I'm 60,” and I'm excited about it. Painting is the one I love the most. It's like I'm being married. I'm married to painting for life, and I love her.



DJing is kind of like your sports car. You know what I mean? You're like, "Yo, I can't wait to go to this car, and I can't wait to race. I can't wait to just cruise."

So, and then all the other things in the middle, I can't tell if they're as honest. Because tattooing, I love tattooing, but it's about money. I love making jewelry, but it's about money. I don't know what else I do. But it's probably about money, and it's less honest. But not saying that I don't enjoy it because I like to make things, and I'm good at making things, and I like when people like it, and I like even more when I can make money from it. Not saying that that's the end goal for everything, but they're less pure. I would DJ for free, like for real. I would DJ anything! Like that's not a good thing to just put out there in the world, but I would!

C: You heard it here, hit him up!


HOW DID YOUR POP-UP COME ABOUT?

My friend Naavin, who I met through my friends William and Mike, managed The Good Company. So, I mean, it's pretty simple. I just asked. Or someone else had a pop-up. At first, to start off, I had a toy machine that I did

because I was collecting these vintage toys, and I was making these keychains with them. I was like, “Oh, can I put this in the store?” And then it kind of turned into, “Oh, can I have a pop-up?” 'Cause they were doing pop-ups for musicians and brands, and I was like, "Oh, I wanna do a pop-up."

And then putting it together is like, there's nothing more fun than doing things with my friends. But making money with my friends is like we’re all playing soccer together. It's like winning the World Cup together.


Flyer by @dari777___

Like Andy, I’m like, “Yo Andy, I love your work, come put something in the pop-up.” My friend Edward, his artist name is Frank Dory. Well, Andy goes by Paco. Edward goes by Frank Dory. I love their work. Even if we weren't friends, I think those are some of the best artists in the world. I'm just like, “Let's do this together.”  Then I had my friends Dayii, MIKE, and William, William goes by Taka as his musician name, they’re DJs. I'm like “Yo, could you guys do this for me, you know? Because, you know, you get more people come out.”  And it's really like putting it together was real fun, and I want to keep doing things like that. But I want to do it better. It wasn't everything that I wanted it to be, but I'm always thinking about how to make something more honest, how to make something more good. Yeah, that's how I came together, just asking my friends. And I'm blessed to know these people, these talented people.


HOW WOULD YOU SAY YOUR ART HAS CHANGED FROM WHEN YOU STARTED?

It's changed a lot. I could send you guys a photo of my early work so you could see what I was into. You know, when you're in high school, you're really into simple shit like KAWS. Like, no offense to KAWS, but that's what you're into when you're like… not really into great art, you know? I was into things like KAWS, and like, what's it called? Mr. Spaceman? The street artist where he does tiles, and he'll do like the space invaders guy. And then he'll do, like, Pac-Man and everything 8-bit, though with tiles on the wall.

He's really good, but um, but that kind of art consumer that’s very into Basquiat, like super into Basquiat. Literally everyone who's into art for one day like Basquiat, KAWS, Warhol… I was really into anime. Not saying that anime is bad art, but things that are really tangible. And it was all very Basquiat-y, like very wet, like lines, just vibes. Now, it's kind of it's very illustrator like,

I don't know how to describe it.  if I were to critique my own work or not critique, but try to see it. It's very figurative. There's a lot of figures, it looks

like it's inspired by cartoons. It went from being very, very painterly—for lack of a better thing, like very Basquiat-y—to now being more cartoonish.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's more refined. I just think I'm interested in different things. I think that's the difference. It was always about the same thing though.



WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING ART FUN FOR YOU?

Maybe I'm too obsessed with the fun because it always has to be fun for me. Almost for worse, I don't really try to get better at things that aren't fun, you know? I feel like you can see that any of my work is very simple. 90% of the time, I'm trying to make something as fast as possible and as simple as possible without sacrificing too much—but I do sacrifice. Like, if you look at my tattoos, it's mostly linework; it's doodles. My favorite type of tattoos to do is, like, doodle art.

I love the ugly tattoos, like, I love that ugly tattoos are popping right now.

I'm trying to get into that Bushwick bag of just some ugly shit. And then people are like, “Nah, I get it.” You know what I'm saying? Like, paying $200 for, like, literally a cow, and the leg is off, and the spots aren't filled in all the way, the spots are scratches. I love things like that. To me, that's so fun.



I would never get something like that tattooed. And I’m not saying I'm against anyone who would, but I love all those people who get it. That's recontextualizing tattooing. Before, it was just like sailor shit—sailors and gradients and eagles and girls. And then, it was kind of like tribal, which is kind of a thing now, like stick-and-poke tribal.

Like bushwick tribal, you know? And then, there's this tattoo account that I fuck with. It's called, like, @paintcracking, and they paint. They tattoo like how paint cracks [are] on the wall, and it's just like these lines. And the fact that people understand that, I think it's hard. Like I know that freedom of lines and abstraction, that's so fun. Like I want to figure out...

That's like seeing someone do a slam dunk for the first time. Or, I don't know if you guys watch sports at all, I don't watch sports that much, but like thinking about Steph Curry. All he shoots is threes. When he was at his peak of his career, they were thinking about changing the rules because the three, because every three-point land is so much he was beating people by 20 points. They're like, "Yo, do we have to make this harder? Do we have to make it make him shoot farther?" And I think that's an artist. Like Steph Curry is an artist, @paintcracking is an artist. Not saying that @paintcracking is the first ever abstract tattoo artist. There's a bunch, and nowadays there's a billion, and they all live in Bushwick for some reason.


But if you're making something where people are like, “whoa that's weird,” and then there's people who are like “whoa that's new and that's good,” you're really like an astronaut in the art world. You're discovering new planets, and I yearn to discover my new planet. I want to do abstract tattoos. I want to invent new styles. I think that's the beauty of art. It’s like the astronauts are having so much fun doing something new.

I want to figure out my weird thing that's fun and easy because when things are easy, they're more fun. So, like, not saying that what @paintcracking does is easy, but once you get into that rhythm, I imagine it's easier. That's when the fun is there. Then people start to celebrate you for that.


DO YOU HAVE ANY GOALS FOR THE END OF THE YEAR?

Yeah, I'm a real enthusiastic top-of-the-year person. I'm the type of person, that in the new year, thinks like, "Yo, this is the year I get a Hellcat. This is the year I get a condo. This is the year I get a solo show at the Guggenheim. This is the year that I DJ. Dang, what's like a really cool place to DJ at? Where's like a venue–”

L: Baby’s All Right.

“–Baby’s All Right, with a crazy lineup. This is the year that I tattoo Drake on a jet for like $50,000.” Like those are my aspirations at the top of every year. Like, not tattooing Drake, but like being the best at everything I do. Every year is the same optimism, and every year is that same fight. Whether or not I get closer to it or farther from it is to be determined, but that's the goal every year.

As far as what's planned, just like a sweater drop and a flash and a painting. But to me, those are all steps towards those things.

Yeah, for sure. And that optimism, that childlike optimism that I have is what keeps me alive, is what keeps me going—and having fun while doing it.



WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE FOR ANY ARTISTS OR CREATIVES?

Have faith, try your best. I have faith. But I don't try my best all the time, I know a lot of people who get really far, like, “Yo, I was grinding so hard day in and day out.” I don't aspire to grind super hard. I aspire to chill. I aspire to get so good at whatever so I could chill. I'm not a capitalist riser-grinder. I like working with my body. I used to work at a nonprofit and like, what is that thing? Something mutual aid. And even now, I'm working with my body as far as more of a craft. I'm making door handles and things like that, like lifting boxes. Like I'm not here to say like, “Oh, I'm lazy.” But I guess to start people off, just make it as fun as possible. Have as much faith, and really be comfortable with being bad.

Because it's like, if you're an artist, not if you're, I'm not on some one of those, like, “Oh, if you're a true artist.” But think about art as a lifelong pursuit if you love it, and think about your favorite artists. Like, a lot of them didn't get good till they're like 40. You're not 40, so you've kind of got a long way to go to get good. So just get comfortable with being bad. Just get comfortable with process and progress and allow your faith and allow your love for it to grow. Really enjoy the ride, you know? The best part is like the whole thing; it's not just the end reward. I hope the capitalism gods bless you so you don't have to stress out too much, but that's just the structure we live in.

Don't be the center. I mean, as far as self-love goes, of course be the center of yourself. But, I think being in community, or

being in faith, like whatever you believe in, you don't have to believe in God, just be together.

C: Any last remarks?

DON’T MAKE ART YOUR GOD.

HUGE THANKS TO BRAYAN FOR AGREEING TO DO THE INTERVIEW! + AN ADDITIONAL SHOUT OUT TO LUCY FOR HELPING US OUT SO MUCH AS USUAL, BUT ALSO FOR BRINGING US TOGETHER!

BRAYAN IS SUPER TALENTED! MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW HIM AT @brayanramales. GET A TATTOO, BUY A SHIRT, ASK HIM TO DJ.


Shot by @trixyogurtofficial

CREDITS

SUBJECT/BRAND : BRAYAN RAMALES @brayanramales

PHOTOGRAPHER : LAURA SONG @gh0stpimp

MODEL : BRAYAN RAMALES @brayanramales

TEXT : E&C* @acediastudios

LUCY : LUCY GONZALEZ @luzdemarie

EDITOR: FELICE DONG @felice.112



Dedicated to Herminio Ramales Flores & Rosa Tapia Mendoza.